


Come to My World (Smoldering Embers)

by QuillHeart



Category: Promare (2019)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Coming Out, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eternal Boyscout Galo Thymos, Gen, Healthy Relationships, Immediate aftermath of canon, Internalized Transphobia, It Gets Better Project, Let's talk about being trans and learn what it's really like, M/M, Naked Cuddling, No Sex, Other, Post-Canon, Self-Acceptance, Self-Discovery, Self-Hatred, That's really all this fic is honestly, Trans Lio Fotia, Trans Male Character, and learn how to accept ourselves and our partners
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:26:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22026292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuillHeart/pseuds/QuillHeart
Summary: Lio has to tell Galo the truth before their relationship can progress any further. He's sure it's going to snuff out the beautiful little flame they've breathed to life together. Much to his surprise, Galo decides otherwise--and that's the problem.
Relationships: Lio Fotia/Galo Thymos
Comments: 26
Kudos: 196





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I had no idea what to name this; "Smoldering Embers" is shortened from "Embers Smoldering in a Snowglobe," sorry if it's a dumb name. Honestly this fic is just me discussing some things around being transgender that I feel get left out of the conversation a lot and which have been on my mind.
> 
> If this is useful to you, that would make me very happy. If this does nothing for you, that's fine too. Don't feel like you have to read or comment on this if it's not your cup of tea; there's nothing you'll miss in my compendium of Promare concepts if you pass on it. Either way, it functions as a nice emotional hurt/comfort with Good Guy Galo coming to the rescue and teaching us all to be better people. <3

It was raining the day their relationship changed.

It was a Sunday morning, one that found Galo home and eating pancakes in his little one-bedroom apartment. The light was a deep, moody-gray shroud that hung heavily over the common areas. Cold rain was pouring down, loud against the windows and the bricks.

Lio, for his part, had been standing stock still with his back to him, staring out the living room window for the better part of twenty minutes. The lights weren’t on, so there was no need to worry about prying eyes, but Galo knew this was the posture, the catatonia really, of Lio Fotia lost in some deep crisis he couldn’t quite think his way out of.

Lio, hiding out from the government, had been sleeping on his couch off and on for months. He would move by night, meeting his allies and plotting his machinations. 

The minute their powers were gone, he had run. He wasn’t proud of it, but it had to be done, he had explained with a quick and heated kiss. There were armed guards all over the Parnassus—ones who still answered to the Governor and his command structure—so it had taken the main brunt of city’s army to clear the place after it had fallen out of the sky.

It had been a standoff of many hours before city emergency teams, the regular army, and the ‘leftovers’ of the government could enter the premises, and in that time, Lio absolutely would have been caught and detained and probably summarily executed in the fray. He didn’t like it, and he blamed himself for the deaths of the Burnish that couldn’t be saved from the reactor for the delay. But so long as he was alive, the rebellion could live another day. That was what he had said about it at the time, and Galo couldn’t argue with it as much as he would have liked, because he knew the rest of the Burnish (now ex-Burnish) agreed with the sentiment more or less.

Lio had delegated the immediate safety and recovery of the Burnish to Galo, with instructions to bring in the press and find any number of Burnish who were, Galo supposed, immediately underneath him in their command structure, and then turn the command over to them until he could reassess the situation and meet up with them. It was a particularly hopeful directive, in retrospect.

Galo had done it, and Galo had been arrested, and in time, Galo had been set free. He was, after all, still technically a jailbird for supposedly having attempted to murder the now impeached governor, not to mention attacking the man with a mech for real later. But the truth had come to light in time—or at least, the political guard changed enough that his usefulness was in the public eye—and so he’d been sent back to work helping clean up the city, his record clear until they decided to trump up charges on him again.

So he worked, day after day, keeping his head down for the sake of his friends at the station to whom he owed so much, only going home about once every four days to shower and sleep. As time went on, and the city repaired itself—first physically, then emotionally—Galo’s schedule shifted to a regular one, doing hours as asked at the station.

But sometimes, when he came home, he’d find a letter slid under his door, with nothing but a time written on it. Or, a delivery would arrive, that he very much had not placed. It would be some ex-Burnish he’d never seen and never would again, scouting out the place prior to Lio’s arrival.

And every time he arrived, they slowly grew closer.

The first few nights, they simply talked. Subsequent nights, Lio lay against Galo’s shoulder and glided an idle hand around his knee. One time, recently, Galo had kissed him, and Leo had nearly melted into him—until he’d abruptly pulled away and left in a conflicted-looking flurry.

It had been a while since Lio had returned again. And now, he was staring out the window like whatever was out there was going to devour him whole.

Galo figured it was some kind of gay panic. He had no idea why, because Lio had never, ever come across as straight to him. But maybe that was the whole point. Maybe it went against his position that he had to maintain. Maybe it was _Galo_ he’d been hoping would be straight, so that their bond could just be an old-fashioned physical sort of brotherly and not have to worry about making anything more of it.

Hell, maybe Lio had a siggo somewhere and was pulling a ‘soldier-with-a-local-side piece’ with Galo.

He didn’t know though, and he wasn’t sure how to bring it up. Lio could be prickly on his best days, and he seemed fully stressed now. Galo had a sore spot in his heart about rejection that he didn’t really want to have punched, given all that had happened with Kray, but it’d already been gouged deep with how the last night between them had ended and he didn’t really want it to continue seeping.

No matter what was going on, Galo at least was the kind of man to confront things openly and honestly, as best he could without judgement. Lio was a bust-through-the-wall-before-using-the-door kind of person, which was useful in battle and kind of a pain at times like this.

Still, the task before him now was trying to jimmy Lio’s door open, rather than setting him off to explode and knock the metaphorical house to splinters like an exploding water heater. Galo wasn’t sure how to do that. Turning Lio on from a depressed state was like starting a car engine: combustion was always involved.

“Did you sleep well?” he decided to start with, voice as even as he could get it from his perch on the kitchen island’s stool.

Lio, his hands at his back like parade rest, nodded distantly. “It’s a comfy couch.”

“You know...” Galo began, staring at his plate, “You could sleep in my bed, if you wanted.” He glanced up through his bangs. “...With me.”

Lio went very still. He didn’t explode, though, and he didn’t run, which Galo counted as a small victory. He thought he saw the back of Lio’s neck turn red with a blush.

“But if you don’t want that...ever...you should probably tell me,” Galo offered softly. “So that I stop barking up the wrong tree and making you uncomfortable.”

Just as Galo went for another bite of anxiety-deflecting pancakes and all their glorious sugar, Lio sighed and strode toward the front door with a frustrated tisk. For a frightening moment Galo was certain he was going to storm through it and never come back.

But after a few paces, Lio planted his feet and whirled around, glaring from the far end of the couch like he was furious about something. “It’s not that.”

The words and the posture were totally at odds. Galo blinked, his back straightening a little in case a fight was coming his way.

“Then what...is it?” he asked, feeling totally under-defensed with nothing but his fork, since he refused to use his fists in situations like this. “Last time you were here—?”

Lio clicked his tongue again, cutting him off. He looked left, looked right, then looked left again, staring at the floorboards with a dark scowl. “I’m sorry about that,” he stated through his teeth. And then, after twitching a bit as he stood rooted to the spot, “It was the wrong thing to do. You...deserved better than I was able to give you at that moment.”

Watching emotions flutter around Lio like a very fast lava lamp was rather painful at times like this. But Galo also didn’t want to burn his fingers by getting involved, he’d learned that lesson fast, so he let him have it, let him take his time calming the convection whirlwind.

After all, it could take Galo a while to process things, but that was because his brain was a metaphorical vespa. Lio was slow to process things because there was just so damn _much_ going through his head that it took him miles and miles of winding mountain roads to get there in his mental Ferrari.

Still, Galo couldn’t help but wonder if the loss of his flames had made things that much more opaque. Flames were supposed to be oracles, and he imagined being able to commune with his own had brought Lio insight over the years when he was living alone in the wastes. Insights he had since lost the path to.

“Then what...is the right thing to do?” Galo prompted softly.

Lio took a deep breath and stared at his own feet. There was something mournful about the set of his shoulders, the way his hands hung at his sides, clenching and unclenching. Galo had rarely seen him like that, but when he did, it always precipitated some sense of tragedy on Lio’s part.

The slender man stayed like that for a very long time, until his jaw suddenly clenched hard enough that Galo could see it in his neck. Lio lifted his head with a toss of his hair and pushed his shoulders back, staring him down from across the room with his violent lavender eyes.

“You really want to know?” he demanded, hand on his hip.

Their eyes met. Galo’s brow creased.

“ _What_ are you so _worried_ about?” he whispered before he had a chance to think better of it.

Lio’s mouth twitched a little. He swallowed hard. And something in his eyes changed, ever so slightly.

“I should have kept kissing you,” Lio whispered back, staring at the counter with a thousand-yard stare. “God, I _wanted_ to. But I didn’t know how you’d react.”

Galo slid off the stool, but didn’t come around the edge of the counter just yet. He left a hand on the vinyl counter top, fingertips slowly warming the surface. “But _I_ kissed _you_.”

“Not to that. To the _rest_ of me.”

His face was twisting, reddening in shame. Tears that he clearly hated were building in the bottom of his eyes, wobbling thickly over his lower eyelids. He scrubbed them away and wheeled on the ball of his foot. “This is stupid.”

“Wait! Don’t leave—!” Galo darted across the room. Since it was so small, it didn’t take long. But Lio was quick, and already had the door flung open by the time Galo caught his wrist.

It was possessive and aggressive, probably startling for a guy who’d been detained unlawfully a time or two and recently lost all his inborn weaponry, but it was very clear Lio wasn’t acting rationally. Galo was a little afraid the man was going to go out and hurt himself somehow.

Lio tensed, but he immediately stopped. He wouldn’t look at Galo, but he wasn’t overtly fighting it, either. From over Lio’s head, Galo quietly shut the door to keep prying eyes away. He left it unlatched, though, the smell of the rain coming through, to let Lio know he could really leave if he insisted on it.

As Galo bent down to chase a glimpse of his face, Lio turned away from him. He jerked his arm to get it back, but Galo held his wrist firmly.

“What are you so afraid of?” Galo pressed at a whisper, leaning down until his words were practically in Lio’s hair. “It’s okay to kiss a guy, you know. And like it...”

Lio barked a bitter laugh, and then his voice lowered dangerously. “Let me go.”

Galo did so, and Lio’s hand immediately snaked for the doorknob. But this time, he didn’t pull it open. He just lingered there in the corner, slowly shifting away from Galo at a lean, trying to look ever smaller and melt into the shadows.

It was bizarre, but Galo waited to see what it meant, and slowly, the words curled like incense out of the man he was so fond of:

“I like you,” Lio whispered almost inaudibly. “But I’m afraid I’m going to break it.”

Galo’s shoulders slumped in relief. “How could you ever do that, Lio?”

“You don’t _understand_ ,” Lio growled, putting his face in his hands. He was still turned away from him.

“Help me understand,” Galo coaxed. “Please?”

In the silence that followed, Galo hesitantly lowered a hand onto Lio’s far shoulder, like he might a trapped wild animal. Surprisingly, Lio let him, and Galo slowly started to pet over the curve with repeated tenderness.

“I’m your friendly neighborhood hero, remember?” Galo tried, his voice betrayingly weak. “I’m here to help...”

“It’s not about what you’re willing to understand, or help, or _fix,_ ” Lio said, finally a bit less tense and sounding exhausted for it. “It’s about what you’re willing to _accept_.”

Galo directed Lio to turn around. He followed the pull of Galo’s hand with morose obedience, head hung low, arms limp at his sides, and eyes hard with some faraway despondency he had decided was inevitable.

“Please don’t give me that look,” Galo said, slowly moving his hands around to Lio’s biceps and rubbing them tenderly. “I don’t deserve that look, do I? When have I ever been such a tragedy to you?”

Lio’s lips tightened, but his gaze loosened, just a little bit.

“It’s okay to give your heart to a friend,” Galo continued in a soft, reassuring voice. “I promise I won’t break it. Even if you decided to cut me out of your life someday, I’d just give it back to you with a thank-you note attached. That’s how I do things. Cuz it’s the right thing to do...”

Lio’s tears suddenly returned and fell down his cheeks at the first blink. The muscles in his neck throbbed as his jaw clenched several times, his throat working dryly. His face turned red all over, and his eyes suddenly brightened from the contrast. His lips twisted, and his shoulders shook under Galo’s hands.

“You terrible fool,” he swore. “I’ll miss you when you decide to hate me.”

And then he rose up to kiss Galo’s lips.

His gloved hands gripped the sides of Galo’s head, one side stiff with buzzed strands and the other thick with long blue ones. Lio pulled the man down to him, and Galo gladly acquiesced, possessively wrapping his arms around Lio’s back. Behind them, Lio loudly shut the door with his foot until it latched, and then pressed flush up against Galo with the momentum.

It was an exhilarating feeling. Galo had never had the pleasure of it with Lio, and instantly, every effected nerve was tingling. Already worked up by everything, he quickly grew half hard, and huffed heavily onto Lio’s skin when the kiss finally broke.

Galo’s hands started wandering downward, wide over Lio’s muscular back, while Lio stayed right up against him. As Galo’s hands snugly fit around the flat, leather-clad buttocks, Lio set a kiss on the space just above his collarbone.

But Lio did no more. He turned his head to the side and rested his cheek on Galo’s chest, his palms flat against his back as he breathed hard. In response, Galo hummed and held his waist with one hand, while massaging his other through Lio’s hair reassuringly.

“You really get worked up sometimes,” he stated.

“You ever wonder why I’m so short?” Lio asked instead.

Galo mulled it over for a moment, then offered, “Just figured you didn’t get enough to eat as a kid, like most people twenty years ago.”

“That’s sweet of you,” Lio stated softly. He peeled off of Galo and took him by the wrist. “Come with me.”

Lio silently lead them across the room. Galo followed without protest, padding along after him. In the grey light of a dreary early morning, Lio’s platinum blond hair glowed ethereally; the ruffles of his clothing fluttered to match.

It quickly became apparent that the destination was his bedroom. Rather surprisingly, no one was directed to the bed—pushed, pulled, thrown, playfully coaxed, or otherwise. Lio simply let his hand go once he had walked into the room and soon came to a stop in the center of the room, facing Galo like he owned the place, his back to the light bleeding through the closed blinds.

Galo hung back, watching this display and readjusting the fit of his jeans a little as he shifted on his feet. He didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but if anyone had asked him, he had to say he was vacillating between thinking he was going to get lucky, and dreading that idea. And also possibly murdered.

He supposed he should have suspected that anything involving Lio Fotia in his bedroom would have been fiery and chaotic, but he had kind of hoped the first time wouldn’t have to be. He had imagined it taking place after a nice dinner, which itself was part of a real and honest date, sometime when Lio _wasn’t_ on the run and greatly in fear of his life and freedom. All that was in service of a slow and tender encounter, exploring each other’s bodies just a little more than they had previously built up to over time.

By the time he got this far in his thought process, though, Lio was silently stripping off his clothes. Galo sputtered.

Lio pulled off his gloves, finger by finger, and dropped them to the floor. Then his jacket was unbuttoned, and Galo watched him shirk out of it with practiced ease.

Then came his shirt, the white one with all the ruffles, folded a couple times and then dropped into the pile at his bare feet. A simple charcoal-grey undershirt lay beneath that.

He gazed at Galo intently this whole time, but it wasn’t in any kind of welcoming way. It was instead with increasing harshness, like he was waiting for an attack and holding it off only with the force of his eyes.

Galo had a few kinks he liked, but he wasn’t sure he was into this, and he didn’t know why anyone else would be, either. They didn’t even have the lights on; this was only happening in the ambient light from the living room and the burning grey from around the miniblinds.

Still, intrepid, Lio quickly unbuckled his trousers and then, thumbs tucked into the waistline, shoved them and his boxers down in one fell swoop. They landed at his feet with an angry crumpling noise.

Galo had never seen him more than shirtless, and even that wasn’t in an intimate setting, so if he was caught by the rippling acrobat’s abs as he shucked off his T-shirt, he was even more enamored with the thin and shapely legs that appeared, and the tidy triangle of dark blond curls that lay between his legs. And the—

Galo’s eyes widened.

“ _Oh_...”

The sound slipped out of him before he could help himself.

Lio stood before Galo, thin and pale and simple, one leg before the other like a dancer’s starting point, or maybe a fencer’s. He stared at his clothes on the ground for several long moments, until Galo spoke.

“You’re a...”

Galo’s mind was reeling.

“You have a...”

He’d read about this from his medical training. Possibly. Probably. And the internet. But there were a couple of options here, and he knew he had to be careful about how he spoke of them, regardless of which it turned out to be.

“ _Hrmmm_.”

However, Galo was nothing if not a man who met challenges full-on.

He wrapped on arm around his own front, cocked his hip to the side, and rubbed his other hand over his mouth. He looked Lio up and down, brow furrowed. Eventually, he locked eyes with Lio, who was staring at him frigidly through is bangs, like he could cut glass with the force of his eyes alone.

“Please explain,” Galo eventually decided on, from behind his loosely curled knuckles.

“Explain _what_ ,” Lio stated icily, hackles raised. “Some men don’t have dicks.”

“That’s not what I mean. I _know_ that. What I mean is—am I supposed to be...upset, or something?” Galo asked, titling his head.

It was Lio’s turn to frown. “ _What?_ ” he hissed. His face screwed up very tightly, like he was furious that he wasn’t being attacked.

“Is this what you’ve been worried about?” Galo asked. “I mean, I can understand that now, I guess, but...I really don’t care. Did you think I’d care?”

“You aren’t going to revoke my man card or something?” Lio shot back, in something very close to a snarl. He shifted onto his back foot a little, like he was really readying to launch at him.

“You are upset,” Galo stated calmly, in his “diffusing situations” voice. He consciously opened up his posture a little. “Why are you so upset.”

“ _You’re_ supposed to be upset!” Lio snapped. “ _Why aren’t you upset!_ ”

“Why am I supposed to be upset?!” Galo bit back, letting himself raise his voice to see if that would push Lio back down by sheer force. Maybe if he felt like his fear had been properly heard, he’d calm down a bit.

“You! You big...! Lumbering...! Macho...?! Fucking _force_ of a man, you’re supposed to hate—this!!”

Lio, his hand whirling through the air like it was blending his thoughts around until they dislodged, suddenly threw his hand down, motioning over his body.

Before he could control it, Galo found himself looking over this display with a troubled expression.

“Don’t you dare pity me, Galo Thymos, don’t you _fucking_ dare—”

“You’re being kinda rude,” Galo stated, cutting through the shout a little tightly. “To both me _and_ you.”

Lio, breathing hard, looked vaguely bewildered at that, and like he might hit something as well because of it. Galo didn’t want it to be himself, but he wanted Lio to break his hand on the wall even less, so he closed his eyes with a sigh and held out his own hands in a placating gesture.

“But I...get where you might think that. Here, can you... would you...join me, for a bit?”

He gestured to the bed. Lio suddenly looked conflicted, both wanting and desperately afraid.

“You can put your clothes back on, if you’d like. It’s just...I think you deserve a nice bed, if you’re gonna be in my room anyway. We could go back to the living room too, if you’re more comfortable with that.”

Lio winced, but forced himself to take a deep breath regardless. “No,” he stated with a resigned sigh. “I’m already here. Let's get this over with.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Split into two parts as best I could just so you don't have to load a 10k-word fic in one chapter and keep losing your place. Never fear, Chapter 2 has all the glorious comfort in it!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I split the story into two chapters, sorry to you first 100 readers, nothing new to see here. X'D I just figured a 10k-word chapter was a bit much these days.

Galo sat down on one side of the queen bed while Lio picked up his clothes, fingering the material thoughtfully. He looked rather forlorn, before he sighed and set them on the dresser, neatly folded. Soon enough, he came to hover at the opposite edge of the bed, staring at the bedspread like it was some insurmountable obstacle. It was possible he hadn’t slept in an actual bed in...possibly ever, really, Galo thought, so he wasn’t too surprised about that, though perhaps he should have been.

Refusing to act like any of this was strange and thereby make it more awkward, Galo, already shoeless, took off his socks like normal and then set a few of the pillows up so that he could sit up against them. He patted the space next to him, and like a prisoner resigned to the gallows, Lio followed.

Galo’s gentle gaze flickered up and down over his frame, tracing the bony angles and muscled curves with a small but welcoming smile. As soon as he was within arm’s reach, Galo welcomed him with a tender touch, worn, calloused hand sliding down Lio’s bicep and coaxing him nearer. A little hesitant, Lio followed it nonetheless, and soon he was guided to straddle Galo’s legs, and more or less sit on his hips.

Blushing, Lio settled in a spot he liked, knees folded out to the sides. The coarse fabric and occasional metal rivet of Galo’s jeans would be rough underneath him, but he seemed willing to handle it, in exchange for Galo being willing to let his clothes get damp.

For a while, no one said anything, each one considering the view. Lio’s eyes tracked over Galo’s wide, well-sculpted torso, marking each defined ab and pectoral line, every shadow and rise, with some surprise and hunger to his gaze. Galo, meanwhile, watched the thin but attractive shapes of Lio Fotia shift as he breathed, the low light playing across his skin.

All the while, Galo lazily stroked a hand up and down Lio’s bare arm, attentive to how it changed his mood. He brushed the backs of his fingers up the skin, and then the fronts of them down it, swirling his wrist whenever he got as far along as he could reach. It was steadying, distracting, and after a while Lio placed his hand over Galo’s to still it.

Lio trained his sharp gaze on Galo questioningly, but with decidedly less venom than before. He’d relaxed noticeably in his posture as well, and Galo, eyes fairly dreamy, raised his eyebrows, sending back another question.

“Like what you see?” he asked, voice bedroom soft.

“Yes,” Lio admitted, just as softly.

Lio’s gaze drifted away self consciously. Only when it returned did Galo say, deliberately:

“So do I.”

He squeezed Lio’s arm where he held it, just below the elbow. Lio looked at it like it had hurt him.

“Do you want me to show you how much I do,” Galo whispered up at him. “Or do you want me to just tell you?”

Lio blushed. He rubbed at his face, and eventually just tipped his head back with his face hidden in his hands. It gave Galo a great view, but not one he really wanted accompanied by such sadness and torment.

 _“I don’t understand,”_ Lio insisted through his fingers. _“Why aren’t you mad. Why aren’t you cursing my existence. Why aren’t you disappointed, and threatening me, and throwing me out of your house?”_

“Why would I do that?” Galo asked. “I like you.”

He gently tugged at Lio’s arms. They didn’t come away, so he rubbed up and down the man’s forearms a few times and tried again.

“Did someone do those things...to you?”

Lio’s hands slowly curled into fists. He stared at the ceiling, eyes red. Galo watched his throat work. It was a look that very much was trapped in the memory of bruises and beatings.

“Did someone tell you...that’s what you should expect, from men like me?” Galo coaxed.

Lio didn’t say anything. He just sighed and looked down miserably, his hands clenched against Galo’s abs. He suddenly looked exhausted and unable to fully hold himself up against the weight of the world.

“What world do you _live_ in,” Lio hissed to himself.

“One where homosexual encounters aren’t a deathknoll to someone’s perceived value and social status, so the physical parts a person has under their clothes means little more than how to please them and what to wash.”

Lio hiccuped a chuckle, one that sounded decidedly sick. He knocked a weak fist down on Galo’s washboard. He refused to look at him, and instead hung his head, shoulders shuddering.

“You’re such an asshole,” Lio keened.

“Shhh.” Galo carded a hand through Lio’s thick bangs. “I’m sorry you’ve lived in something different. But I won’t treat you like that. Like...a problem. Like a...”

He trailed off, not wanting to make it real by saying it aloud.

“Come to my world, Lio,” Galo decided on instead.

“The first person I loved,” Lio began, tilting his head away from Galo’s touch. He took the man’s hand and held it in both of his, down by his stomach. “Dumped me because I wasn’t ‘man enough.’ My second threw me away because I wasn’t ‘feminine enough.’ Then came people who were happy for a ripe and vulnerable fruit, and encouraged me to just accept whatever they wanted me to be.”

He refused to look anywhere but Galo’s fingers, gently manipulating them one by one as if just looking for something safe to hold. His voice warbled strangely, and to Galo’s dismay, the story went on:

“Once I started to change, no one wanted me at all, but a few people triple my age were willing to use me as an exotic checkmark on a list.” His voice cracked, and he rubbed at his throat briefly. Galo set his hand on top of his thigh in the interim, rubbing it reassuringly.

“Someone I trusted very much admitted that he thought I was a freak,” Lio went on after a shaky breath, “and when he wasn’t making jokes about it to his friends, he kept lamenting how unattractive I had made myself, that I had _ruined_ myself, as if somehow I would 'just stop all this’ and magically reverse what I had done so that I could be properly worthy of his attention again."

“I’m sorry,” Galo whispered, mouth a grim line. “That’s really awful. None of those things should have happened to you. Or anyone... That’s manipulative and abusive as hell.”

Lio shook his head distantly, and hugged his arms around himself subconsciously. “So why would you...” His brow knit. “You, the most jock of a man I’ve ever met, not care one bit?”

As Lio started to tremble, Galo hummed sympathetically and, deciding to forego pointing out that he was actually a reformed punk, gently tucked a lock of hair behind Lio’s ear. “How old are you, Lio?”

“Thirty-two. Why, how old are you?”

Somehow, they’d never gotten around to talking about it. It didn’t seem quite relevant, when one was exhausted and on the run, and just looking for a soft, safe, warm spot to curl up in.

“Twenty-four.”

Lio laughed bitterly. “You’re just a kid.”

“I am a young working professional,” Galo announced with a chuckle, and Lio rode out the wave on his lap. Galo settled an appreciative hand over his nearest naked hip bone. “You were born before the Burn.”

Lio nodded. “Just a little.”

“Can I ask you something?”

“You already are.”

“Were you born this way, or did you decide to make a change somewhere along the line?”

Lio’s eyes widened slightly. It didn’t last long, quickly schooled into something dead but sharp. Galo could feel him tense every place they touched.

“Hey,” Galo warned gently, “You’ve done a really good job trusting me so far. Please trust me a little longer.”

He sounded like he was talking to a child. Lio didn’t mind as much as he thought he would.

“I was born this way,” he muttered eventually, vaguely irritated by having to, and staring resolutely at Galo’s belt. “And then I decided to change my body to match.”

“And were you taught...that what you are, or have done, is evil?”

Lio’s eyes flickered side to side. He stopped breathing, and Galo swirled a finger over his knee to redirect his attention.

“It’s not, for the record,” Galo stated. “It’s beautiful. Like all humans are beautiful, in the great medley that is biological life.”

“You liar,” Lio said, without much teeth to it.

“No,” Galo insisted lightly. He rubbed Lio’s thigh appreciatively. “I think you’re very brave, and I am very lucky.”

“Jerk,” Lio insisted, but only half-heartedly. He swirled an idle circle on the back of Galo’s offending hand.

“One day, you won’t say mean things about yourself around me, and I’ll like that day,” Galo mused. “I hope I can help you get there.”

“Now you’re _really_ just being a jerk.”

“Am I really?”

Lio shrugged, noncommittal.

“Lio.” Galo held him by the waist and shifted a little, presumably to get the feeling back in his legs. “I’m gonna ask you a really personal question, and you can refuse to answer and tell me to go to hell if you’d like.”

Lio raised an eyebrow, but a teachable moment was not the sort of challenge Lio Fotia ever failed to meet.

Galo sighed and ran a hand through his own hair, and then rested his head on that arm, folded behind him in the pillows. “Is this why you became Burnish?”

“...Why?” Lio asked, gaze sharpening to one of deep concern. “Do you mean _how_?”

“No, I mean why. Did you ask for the fire, after all this? To protect you?”

“That’s not...how it works,” he muttered eventually, looking away toward the window.

“It’s not?”

He sounded genuinely confused.

“It just comes when it decides to come,” Lio said, looking rather conflicted. “But the pain I suffered helped it be more powerful, yes.”

Galo, looking rather sheepish, pursed his lips. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” he said, shaking his head. “There are a lot of misconceptions about the Burnish, I’d hate for you to hold any if you didn’t have to. I should be grateful you were willing to even ask.”

“Still, you shouldn’t have to do all the emotional work for my ignorance,” Galo noted. “Thank you though, for telling me.”

Lio shrugged, but a moment later a thought visibly struck him. “Are you asking me...if misanthropy lead me to being Burnish?”

Galo chewed over the idea for a few long seconds. He couldn’t deny it sounded infallibly logical, but he didn’t think Lio would appreciate that. Carefully, he said, “No...I was more wondering which came first, Lio or the flames.”

“Oh.” Lio blushed a little. “The flames did.”

Lio put his hands to his chest reverently. “They helped me heal, after.”

Galo hummed, interested. “I’m kind of surprised you managed to get surgery.” He wasn’t aware that sort of infrastructure existed years ago, and furthermore, that Burnish on the run would have had access to it.

“My parents disowned me after it became clear I wasn’t going to give up my flames for their sake.”

Galo blinked in surprise. “Shit.”

“And I ended up in a government lab, where they were researching the regenerative properties of Burnish. They agreed to do it for free if I’d be their guinea pig about it.”

“Damn...”

Lio shrugged. “Joke’s on them, I healed all the other ‘lab rats’ and ran off with them in the night. Hahh, my first band of desert lights...”

Galo blinked hard, hitting a mental brick wall. That always happened when he remembered his friend and crush was an anti-government criminal element. Every time he had to learn a new stripe of his record, though, Galo was left a little sputtering, both in awe at Lio and anger at the situations that inevitably lead up to each thing.

“Well...then...” Galo choked.

Lio chuckled to himself. “Good times.”

His gaze turned forlorn soon afterward though, and Galo knew exactly why: the flame, gone from him like a missing limb.

“Hey. Your chest is pretty sweet. May I?”

“Oh. S-sure... I-If you want to...?”

Lio drew Galo’s hand to his left pec. Galo smiled warmly and smoothed his fingers over the muscle, the shape. It was reverent and kind and tender, and Lio looked like something very sad, but not entirely bad, was crossing his mind. Like some wall was breaking down.

“They did a good job.” Galo found himself moderately surprised and honestly a little relieved. If there was one good thing that came out of Kray’s awful government, he was proud it could be this.

“Yeah. I wasn’t sure they would, but they brought in an expert. I guess because they wanted reliable clinical evidence, not half-assed chop jobs. If Kray was anything, it was a real scientist, I guess.”

They both shivered at the same time. “But let’s not talk about that.”

“Yeah, let’s not.”

“Anyway.” Lio shrugged, with a dry, “what can you do”-style sigh.

Galo, meanwhile, hummed to himself to disrupt the memories and emotions they brought. “I’m still sorry you had to go through that, though.”

“Eh.”

“ _Shit,_ you’re brave,” Galo declared after a moment. Lio chuckled spontaneously. “And you have a great smile,” Galo added when he saw it.

“ _Oh,_ shush.”

But Galo wasn’t about to stop the process of praise, verbal or physical. He idly swirled his middle finger around Lio’s nipple, watching him react. To his surprise, Lio giggled adorably, shivering and twitching lightly all over his body, and his little blond hairs standing on end here and there. He slapped a hand over Galo’s.

“Ah, that tickles.”

“God, you’re cute.”

Lio blushed.

“I like cute guys.”

Lio bit his lip.

“I hope you like me too.”

Lio’s hair slid down over his reddening cheeks, and he tucked a lock behind his ear with a slender finger. “...I do,” he admitted shyly.

Galo chuckled good-naturedly and let his hand slide down to Lio’s hips. “What would Meis and Guiera think, someone like me managing to make their boss shy like this.”

“They’d try to defend my honor, probably by fighting you to the death in mud wrestling, street racing, drinking, or good ol’ back alley knife fighting.”

“Well then I guess I won’t tell them,” Galo snickered, a little alarmed.

“No,” Lio agreed. “We won’t. This is just for you and me.”

Galo smiled, running a hand over Lio’s head. “I’m glad you decided to stay and talk to me. It means a lot, not...disappearing like that, on me.”

Lio watched him studiously. “Oh,” he murmured, as the gears clicked into place.

“Yeah,” Galo whispered, not wanting to really go into it if he didn’t have to.

“Sorry.”

“Thanks.” Galo touched at Lio’s ear. “Can I ask you one more thing?”

“I suppose,” he grumbled, in that way he did when he wasn’t really mad. “Since you’ve been so patient with me.”

“How did you...know?” Galo asked honestly. “That something was different about you than what everyone else was expecting?”

“How does anyone know they can manifest inter-dimentional flames?” Lio asked, only to realize a moment later that Galo was, in fact, not of the subset of the population that would understand that. “Oh. Sorry.”

Lio shifted, pulling his legs up front and sitting on Galo with his arms hanging between his knees to politely block the view. “What I mean is, you just listen to the background noise, and eventually you flex a muscle, and it’s there, right at the surface. And the more you listen, the louder and clearer it gets.”

“I...see?” Galo asked, clearly not getting it. “Am I being too intrusive again?”

“No. I actually like talking about that, it’s a point of pride.” Lio smiled a tiny bit and traced a finger down Galo’s shirt, like water winding down a seasonal riverbed. “I didn’t notice it at first. Mostly, I just leaned toward things reserved for guys, particularly social roles and sensibilities. My heroes were all androgynous dudes like me, who shared my concerns.

“But as I got older, and I was pushed into the wrong boxes, everything associated with those boxes _hurt_. And I don’t mean just, like, mildly frustrating and scary but thrilling like all puberty is supposedly frustrating and exciting. Most people hit puberty and are excited by it, it makes them happy because they have new challenges awaiting them that they are thrilled to meet. I _cried._ For days and days, I mourned a rising tide I could not stop. I would stare at myself naked in the mirror at night and plead at my body parts for the changes to stop.” His voice hushed, he nodded to himself, fingers idly stroking in place over Galo’s shirt. “And that was when a lot of weird, bad things started happening to me, looking back on it.”

Galo frowned thoughtfully, but nodded. He slid his hands down Lio’s legs idly. “Go on.”

“My mind would just throw a fucking _fit_ if I even thought about one of those rites of passage we have for women, like bra shopping and panty hose. If I was put in a dress, or God help me, someone put makeup on me, I would get so physically agitated that I would claw at my skin until they took it off or I was bleeding.” He held up a hand, palm offered up gracefully to the sky. “I hadn’t worn a dress since I was four. I hated them and everything they represented. But I still liked talking about love and pairing up with someone, usually guys but some girls too, and every time I tired to be sexy the way the world told me I should be, I...”

He trailed off, mouth pursed.

Galo let it sit, lest he didn’t want to continue, but the look on his face made it seem like he really wanted to. “You...?” he coaxed.

“This isn’t a nice thing to say, but...” He gazed at Galo rather guiltily, and Galo nodded, acknowledging the preface. “It felt like I was one of those big dudes in bad drag, that were always being made fun of in movies, you know?”

Galo swallowed. In the first ten years after the Great World Blaze, society had basically been melted and hadn’t yet reformed. It took about a decade for cities to rebuild and stabilize enough for leisure industries like cinema to return, and so there was a distinct gap in the media record as far as ideologies and standards. So, by the time Galo was able to remember things, the movies were modern, but Lio’s childhood would have been whatever had been salvageable from people’s hard drives or bunkers.

Still, Galo knew what he was talking about nonetheless. Those absurdly painful bits of destructive cultural background radiation, from people with no compassion and even less class.

Lio, gazing off at the headboard, shook his head, hair fluffing out to the sides. He leaned back, and Galo put his propped-up knees together so Lio could rest against them like a music stand. “I couldn’t live like that,” Lio said, settling in. “I was slowly going insane. I hated the way I looked and every day I found a way to dig my personality into a deeper hole and hurt myself more, physically or mentally.” His eyes narrowed, and his face twisted bitterly. “I was headed for a bad end like that, and nobody was willing to see it for what it was, no matter how much I asked. The flames were my only friend then. My comfort, my solace. And I had to hide them, too....”

Lio held his hands to his chest, clearly remembering a node of warmth there. Galo could almost see a small ball of flame spark to life cupped in them, glowing pink and teal, but of course nothing came.

In time, Lio sighed, shifting his stance again, luxuriously resting one elbow on Galo’s knee like the edge of a bathtub. “They were always so clear and certain. So long as I could hold onto them, I could hold onto the fact that I was capable of discerning my own truths, no matter what the world said about my choices, and my family said about my illness.”

“An illness?” Galo squawked. “They called it...an _illness_?”

Lio nodded, and gave a telltale snerk. He pursed his lips and rubbed at his face. “Anyway,” he said. “Does that explain it all right?”

“It does. But...” Galo pursed his lips, his thick neck tightening. “Would you mind telling me what happened after? I’m curious how things changed for you, after that explanation.”

“Oh that’s easy,” Lio laughed lightly, his bright, easygoing smile showing up for the first time in weeks. “It was like the sun finally returned to shine on my life. A sun that I could hardly remember, since it had left so early on.” He made a motion with both hands, theatrical and graceful and proud. “You get what you see here: The Great Lio Fotia, not afraid of anything and burning cities down on the way to saving worlds.”

He chuckled, and Galo tilted his head, processing it. That seemed to a tough egg to crack, so Lio pitied him and said, “My...dysphoria mostly went away. I could look in a mirror and not mentally reel like I’d been punched in the face. I could take everything I was, present it to someone, and get back in return exactly what I’d been taught I should for any given quantity.

“Furthermore, I could do something and not take it personally, because no longer was that which was ‘me’ presented to the world only a facade made to please them. If they didn’t like me, that was fine, because I was being myself, and I was firm in knowing I was the way I was on purpose.

“To put it another way, I guess you could say that I was finally playing the game on the right field. I’d been living my whole life with a baseball bat on a football field. It was no wonder no one would play with me and chase me away when I tried. But now...” His head titled, his big lavender eyes crinkling happily at the edges. “I was part of a real team, playing the game I’d trained all my life for, and going right up to the championship because of it.” He gazed up at the ceiling fondly. “I felt like...like a seed that had been waiting in the desert had finally found rain. That it was swelling and growing and building into a beautiful flower.”

He smiled that breathless smile down at Galo. “Does that make sense?”

Galo nodded, swallowing a little hard at how attractive Lio’s happy self was. He was radiant, in a way he hadn’t been a bit ago. Galo was very aware, suddenly, the he would willingly lay down his life in service of helping that beauty shine—and bloom—freely.

“The background noise always in my head stopped. My motivations were simple and straightforward. I finally had a sense of self that was unshakeable, and the way I interacted brought logical results, so I was capable of growing for once, rather than always being stuck in a labyrinth of trial and error that had no where to go but down.

“I was praised for who I was, rather than told I was wrong all the time. I had friendships that were deep and valuable for the first time in my life, not desperate and fragile. I stopped hurting myself, punishing myself, for never being right, both physcially and mentally. This mild hysteria that was always there under the surface whenever I had to interact with someone—in any context, relation or random stranger—disappeared almost overnight, as soon as people started to see me the way I wanted them to.

"I simply _was_ , and furthermore that was _accepted_ , when previously I was not cohesive and no one had wanted what I was selling--except, of course, for people who wanted nothing more than a pretty body to use and destroy. I was _proud_ of myself— _proud of myself, Galo,_ which I had never felt before!—when previously I was always confused and hurting, and had no idea who I was or what right I had to be taking up space.

“I was lucky and had the foundations to get a hot body and an attractive face, but even if I hadn’t, you know...I wouldn’t have minded.” He stared down at Galo’s belt, plucking at it idly. “Because being able to be a completely unremarkable man would have been a godsend compared to being a complete failure of a woman.”

Galo’s little mental vespa, complete with _matoi_ flag, was puttering through to its destination. Lio let him have his time, and eventually put his knees together idly, so that he didn’t have to sit there with his hands splayed on Galo’s abs or one leg crossed over another and getting his feet in intrusive places. (Not that Galo minded the view of a well-placed and well-manicured foot, however.)

“I guess the answer is, you just know, if you’re willing to listen,” Lio said easily. “Just like with the flames. And then that, in turn, becomes your strength, if you are honest with what you find.”

Galo nodded, clearly turning the layers over in his mind. He swirled his fingers over the side of Lio’s calf, and asked quietly, “Do you ever miss it? Who you used to be?”

It wasn’t asked in a moralizing fashion, but a sympathetic one. An awe-inspired one. Lio shook his head.

“That person never existed,” he stated quietly but firmly. “Everyone thought she did, everyone _wanted_ her to, but they were wrong, because they weren’t paying attention.” His eyes fixed on Galo’s with a teacherly patience, but a very strict one too. “And trying to make her real was killing me, because it was not something my software was set up to do.” 

Lio took a breath, looked off, and shook his head gently. “I gave it a good college try and went as far up the ladder of womanhood that I wanted. And that wasn’t very far. I maxed out in a state that would have left me a perpetual child, and that’s no way to live your life—stuck inside a tiny snow globe, pretending like everything will be alright if you just change and ignore everything you are. That somehow throwing more snow in there is desirable. It just clouds the water.

“I didn’t _want_ to fall in love as a woman. I didn’t _want_ to get married as a woman, or have kids as a woman. I simply didn’t want _any_ of that and I was subconsciously sabotaging every advance and effort in that direction.

“But the thing was...I’d be more than happy to do all those things as a man. I looked _forward_ to those things in a male body with a male role, so very _excitedly,_ because I knew the type of man I would be, and how he would improve the world, and the life of some lucky mate. The type of woman I ‘was’...did not want to be here, and was only ever going to be left behind by the world. She was never part of the larger human conversation, and she was never going to leave the world better than she found it because of that, no matter how long she managed to live, which probably wasn’t very long at all. And when I started to see that...that was when I knew I had to change, and I couldn’t let myself look back with an attitude of regret.”

“That’s...really incredible,” Galo said honestly, and for a while, he was quiet, his brow furrowed as he thought it all over, little reassuring touches idling around Lio’s legs and feet. It was hard to understand, hard to imagine, but he _could_ imagine that being so incoherent internally would be extremely painful, just as he’d said. Like knowing your train was on the wrong track, going to the wrong destination, but you could never find a turnaround point. Because that track was _your entire lifespan_.

Lio hummed, stretching his arms above his head and making a show of it. “Your legs are nice. Big and comfy and warm.”

“So are yours. Nice, I mean. Very slender and athletic.” Galo eyed Lio like he might whistle. He held onto the thin ankles while he moved, keeping Lio safe and grounded.

“So what do I call you?” Galo asked next, a bit thoughtful.

“Lio is fine.”

“No I mean, the other thing. I haven’t been getting it wrong, have I? I haven’t been putting my foot in my mouth this whole time, have I?”

“Hah! No, my sweet ember, not at all. What you have been doing is fine. I am a man, I go by ‘he,’ nothing can change that. Some people may be rebellious and refuse to give it me my proper due, but nothing a few threats to the naughty bits can’t fix.”

“Good,” Galo said, a little chagrined. “I like you just the way you are.”

Lio smiled. Galo rubbed a welcoming hand down Lio’s shapely leg. “So you always liked guys, huh? That never changed?”

“It never changed,” Lio said, a little glimmer in his eye as he looked over Galo. “But it was a bit confusing for a while. Labels are harmful, when they’re attached to community acceptance, as you mentioned.”

“True.”

“How about you? You always into little guys like me?” Lio beamed, striking a pert pose.

Galo drank this in, then nodded with a wry smile. “I kind of gravitate towards older guys,” he admitted, looking off. “The nuns didn’t like that.”

“Aw. Poor guy. Did the priest?”

Galo sputtered. “You can’t just say that!”

“Oh but I did, now what?”

Galo’s eyes flashed in embarrassment. Lio winked.

“You troublemaker.”

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out.”

Galo sighed and settled back into the pillows, pulling Lio a little further up his body for the effort. He was ridiculously light; it was so easy—and fun—to do. “I dated a few girls, but, you know, it was just never all that exciting the way I was told it should have been? I think I kept sister-zoning them, unfortunately.”

Lio made a note of sympathy. “I feel that. That’s what sex was like for me with everyone, before I switched over. I could never attract the kind of people I liked, only gross people.”

“You like women too?”

“A few. But the kind I like, I could never marry. They’re way out of my league.” Lio drummed on Galo’s knuckles with his fingertips. “I much prefer you. You’re excellent and amazing, but much more on my level.”

“I can’t believe someone as impressive as you would say that to me.”

“But it’s true. You butter my toast just the way I like it, Mr. Firefighter McNeighborhood-Hero.”

Galo’s heart swelled, and he hunched in a little. “Thanks, man.”

“No problem.” Lio gazed at him for a while, then sighed out a breath and checked around the room. His eyes lingered on the window, thinking about something. The arc of their conversation, maybe, Galo hoped.

He could imagine how hard it would be for Lio to even go outside, on his bad days, with all the things he was dealing with. At different times of his life, how had just being _not right enough_ prevented the man from freely enjoying even daylight on his face?

“About your earlier question,” Galo managed to say after a while, “I guess it’s down to age difference.”

“What is?”

“Why I don’t care.” He smiled up at Lio gently. “When you were growing up, the adults were still trying to hold on to the old order. By the time I was growing up, things had calmed down somewhat, kids were more connected, the language had evolved around the issue, and we all agreed there were other things to worry about.”

“Like the Burnish,” Lio noted, looking glum.

Galo sighed and brushed Lio’s bangs out of his eyes with a thumb. “How are they doing?”

“As well as can be expected.”

“That’s good. Let me know if I can help.”

“I will, when the time comes. Did you get those blankets I asked you to pick up?”

“Yes. Wasn’t even hard, with the coupons.”

“Thanks for that. It’ll help.”

The conversation fell flat, and silence settled between them. Galo kept swirling a slow circle on Lio’s bare thigh.

“It’s incredible,” Lio stated after a while, looking a bit conflicted.

“What is?”

“That such a few years can make such a huge difference.”

Galo nodded, not at all willing to let Lio fall back into sadness again today. “But hey. You can reap the benefits now. In the form of meee.”

He grinned cheesily, flexing his biceps from his laid-back angle. Lio sighed, and, leaning forward, tapped him on the forehead with a finger. “I suppose. You really don’t mind about me?”

“I was taught that deciding to sleep with someone based on the parts they had was objectifying those parts rather than enjoying the person, and thus was rather short-sighted when considering mates, all told. If you want sexual pleasure and you think there has to be a flesh-and-blood boner and hot lady parts involved, you’re being rather basic and forgetting technology exists, among other things.”

Holding Lio’s knees so he couldn’t fall away, Galo shook his head emphatically. “Besides, I’m an EMT, remember? We learned about this stuff in class, and then I educated myself on the social aspect of it more. There’s a fair amount of such folks around these days, living happy, normal lives. Not too big a deal among most people my age, really. We cared a little more about preventing the planet from burning down.”

Lio scowled, but not deeply. Just thinking. Listening. _Processing._

 _“_ I suppose there weren’t too many in the desert, huh?”

Lio shook his head. “And the ones there were...did not fair well.”

“But Meis and Gueira...?”

Lio shrugged. “Are closer to your age and hung out on the bad side of town all the time.”

“Ah.”

“But you really don’t care?” Lio asked again, eyeing him, though with a bit of his usual personality to it.

“No,” Galo said, a little forcefully. “Pussy feels great, why would I be upset?”

Lio’s shoulders hunched with a sudden full-body chortle. He coughed several times, choking on spit. “God Galo, you can’t just _say_ that to a guy.”

“Why not?” he asked. “It’s true. Best of both worlds, far as I’m concerned. Can we talk about if you’ll let me touch you there? I’d really like to, like, right now, but I’ve heard some people don’t like that...”

Lio’s face twisted into something complicated that was a mix of defeated misery and unexpected comfort.

“It’s fine,” he stated. “I don’t mind. It’s there, might as well use it.”

“It’s really okay if you don’t want to.”

“No, I’m not just saying that to make you happy. I mean it. I’ll...tell you if something feels wrong.”

Suddenly, Galo smiled fully, for the first time since Lio had arrived that day. “I’d like that. Please do. You are a hot fucking piece and I really want to touch the artwork.”

“Sure,” Lio laughed. “But while we’re talking...you aren’t...gonna start treating me like some fragile thing, or anything, are you?” His eyes narrowed warningly.

Galo held up placating hands. “If I do, it’s only because you’re an adorable twink.”

Lio sputtered again.

“You’re cute when you blush.” He cupped Lio’s cheek, soaking in the heat.

“Can I be honest with you about something?” Lio asked, holding Galo’s hand to his skin welcomingly.

“Mm?” Galo hummed.

Lavender eyes opened and gazed down at him sharply. Hips wiggled back and forth on his length, by all accounts Lio enjoying how it threatened to bruise himself.

“I’m kind of looking forward to what _you’ll_ feel like, when you touch me.”

Galo grinned. “Can I be honest with you about something else?”

Lio’s heartrate ratched up, and he shifted a little within his perch on Galo’s body. “...What?”

But the firefighter only swirled his hips in a slow circle, grinding Lio down against him and committing the reaction to memory for later replay.“I’ve been wondering what you’d be like in this bed. Under my hands. Coming undone. How fast I could...” Lio’s breath hitched a little, and he drank in every moment of it. “...Get you to moan my name, as those devilish hands of yours clutched my sheets, or my back.”

“Heh. You’ll have to work for that,” Lio chided, but when Galo slipped his thumb into his mouth, it didn’t seem like it would take long at all, given the luxurious noise Lio made.

“I want to see you ride me,” Galo husked, and he could _feel_ the shiver that went through Lio. “ _Boy_.”

Lio shuddered even deeper at that, gloriously. Galo ran a hand over his hip bone. “Can I call you a slut? That’s gender neutral, right?”

“Any more it is,” Lio agreed, brow knit as he hummed into the feeling of grinding down against the hardness in Galo’s jeans. “But...I prefer ‘naughty,’ honestly. I’m a classy guy, as I think you’ve figured out by... _ah, unf,_ God you’re hard...now.”

“Done. And hey?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you do all that to me, too? Except harder? I can get you a prosthetic.”

“Oh Galo Thymos, you don’t know how happy that would make me. Now that I can’t make one with my flames, I’ll let you know what kind of setup I prefer and then maybe we could go shopping together.” Lio giggled, but with a wicked smile. “Can I wear my leather?”

Galo’s mouth opened, and he smiled a speechless, gobsmacked smile. Finally, he tilted his head back and said, “Flames? Leather? Cute twinks? Did I die and go to heaven?”

Lio chuckled. “Today I wouldn’t mind if you just hold and kiss me a bit. But I look forward to discussing what you like and seeing what we can do for each other. You are _dreadfully_ attractive, after all, it drives me to distraction when I really should be paying attention to other things.” He punctuated this statement by grinding down on him, mouth shivering open with a hiss.

“Roger that, Captain.” With a breath, Galo sat up fully, and pulled Lio into his lap properly. Lio folded his legs behind his partner, and wrapped a thin arm around his shoulders.

“Feeling better?” Galo asked. He kissed at Lio’s naked neck, enjoying the tender warmth there.

“Mmm, yes,” Lio hissed, tilting his head back wantonly and doing his best to mold into Galo’s upper half.

“So let’s have some fun today, huh?”

“I think I’d like that.”

“And next time, trust me a little before you decide I’m your enemy, okay?”

“You got it.”

“That’s my man.”

It was raining the day their relationship changed, heavy and hard and cold.

Perhaps that was why, when Galo and Lio worked each other over on Galo’s bed that day, they were slow and gentle, and very, very hot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading this, if you've gotten to the end!
> 
> Lio's age - He strikes me as anything from 14 to 35. He's wonderfully versatile in that way, and for this story, it made sense to have him be older.
> 
> Galo's age - I discussed with @Liz_tudor that Galo had to: 1) Graduate high school, 2) graduate firefighting academy, and 3) is probably also an EMT, which is a couple years of training, before he could even apply for his job. Plus, he's been in his job between six months and two years, one would think. So he's probably around 22-24 during the film. I also think he makes more sense, emotionally speaking, with the way fandom likes to write him, if he's a smidge older. That's why I picked what I did here.
> 
> As for Lio being trans, obviously there's nothing in the film about it, but I think one could make a good case for it if they wanted. Lio's flames are pink and light blue. Their third color is yellow, but sometimes it shines with a white gloss (because when you put pink, blue, and yellow together in the light spectrum, _it makes white_ ), like in the cave scene. 
> 
> He also is the size of a female character and his armor even is animated with female hips. I read in a random Reddit comment (which had zero cited evidence but sounded like they'd read it somewhere legit) that he was originally supposed to be female, that's why he's got such a female character build in so many ways, but you know what, I'll take a trans character too. We deserve one by now who's not a huge joke. 
> 
> I look forward to all the trans guys cosplaying him this coming season and into forever. I hope to join those cosplay ranks soon, and who knows, maybe I'll be a guy by then, too?
> 
> Special thanks to the Attack on Titan and Undertale orchestrated and piano soundtracks for helping me get this written, and thank YOU, fandom, for being here! :)


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